There's more to musicals than the all-too-familiar over-homogenized triteness of Oklahoma! and My Fair Lady. In honor of Ana Chavira, a frequent Musical Theatre Southwest (MTS) performer and contributor, MTS recently opened its brand spanking new Ana Chavira Theatre in the Frank A. Peloso Performing Arts Center, which also houses the much larger Hiland Theatre. The purpose of this intimate 85-seat theater is to provide a new and appropriate venue to stage alternative musicals for Albuquerque audiences.

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science

By Steven Robert Allen

Many conservatives, I've noticed, are hypocrites. Half an inch beyond the American flag lapel pins, the pretentious sanctifying of our Founding Fathers, and the blathering defenses of the Republican party's narrow, hyper-corporate brand of liberty lurks a world view that runs contrary to most of the basic principles of American democracy. When they aren't busy stripping us of the so-called inalienable rights granted to us by our Constitution, many conservative politicians busy themselves with the dismantling of one of America's finest legacies: the setting aside of federal lands for the benefit of future generations.

Vortex Theatre and Albuquerque Little Theatre

By Steven Robert Allen

Theatre-in-the-Making, the hardest working youth theater group in Albuquerque, presents a new production of Shakespeare's comedic battle of the sexes, The Taming of the Shrew. Paul Ford directs this lunatic play about a mean-spirited woman and the eccentric weirdo who tames her. The Taming of the Shrew runs Friday, April 9, and Saturday, April 10, at 7 p.m. at the Vortex Theatre. $5. 247-8600. The next week the show hops over to the Albuquerque Little Theatre, running Wednesday, April 14, through Friday, April 16, at 10 a.m. and Saturday, April 17, at 7 p.m. $6. 242-4750.

Graduate Art Annex and the Maddox

By Steven Robert Allen

UNM's talented graduate art students will open their studios to the public on the evening of Friday, April 9. Two separate buildings will host the event: the Graduate Art Annex, accessed by entering UNM at Yale and Central, and the Maddox, located at the corner of Ash and Copper. The Annex will be open from 6 to 8 p.m. and the Maddox will open its doors from 7 to 9 p.m. Casadimanza will provide live music. Set aside a couple hours to see what some of New Mexico's better up-and-coming artists have created. 277-5861.

An interview with Eric Schlosser

By Laura Sanchez

Eric Schlosser's first book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the American Meal, spent three years on the New York Times bestseller lists. The book follows our burgers from pasture to plate, and it documents damage the junk food industry inflicts on our waistlines, workers, environment and children. Book number two, Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market, tours our nation's bizarre, often horrifying, trillion-dollar, underground illegal drug economy.